


you know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start

by egelantier



Series: the war is won before it's begun [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Double Drabble, Embroidery, F/F, Patronising Captors, Politics, Royalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26412997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egelantier/pseuds/egelantier
Summary: I will not,Zinnia repeats to herself,jam my needle into his eye.
Series: the war is won before it's begun [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919812
Comments: 9
Kudos: 16





	you know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Caracalliope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caracalliope/gifts).



_I will not,_ Zinnia repeats to herself, _jam my needle into his eye._

There's a soothing quality to this mantra, especially if Zinnia allows herself a treat and appends _not yet_ to it, on worse days. She rolls the black worn pebbles of those words in her mouth, and, therefore sustained, smiles at Lord-Protector Zussa without strain. Day after day, as he drops in to talk to her, read her sermons, reassure her, all but pat her head.

His worst offense, the one she'll never forgive him, is that he likely thinks himself just, and kind. Is he not? Her chambers are lavish, her servants deferential, her food plentiful. The silk of her embroidery boasts pure and deep colors. The garden on the top of her tower gifts her shade, green, the riot of the flowers, the chatter of the birds.

The walls around it are tall and thick; her little slice of living world is on the bottom of the well.

 _Not yet_ , she thinks, year after year; imagines the wet, easy slide of the needle. _Not yet_.

But those days, Sparrow kneels by her feet, and her mouth curves with secrets. And so, Zinnia allows one change. 

_Soon_. 


End file.
